


Every Sun Sets

by Lea



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-31
Updated: 2012-01-31
Packaged: 2017-10-30 10:44:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/330869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lea/pseuds/Lea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the few suffer for the sake of the many.  So if you fight that fate, who loses?  [AU, fantasy setting.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Sun Sets

For one who had tried so hard to be strong, she wept so bitterly.

 

She had said nothing as they led her down dark hall after ancient, stone hall.  Done nothing to escape when they traded her manacles for the old, clammy ones that held her arms high over her head.  Felt nothing from the last rites as the priest laid icy fingers over first one cheek, then the other.

 

But the moment the heavy stone slab rolled to a stop behind them, she was crying her eyes out into the awkward pillow of her arm.  Pulled high as it was, she only really had access to her upper arms for comfort, fingers twitching and wresting above and chains clinking desolately with every sob.  At least this discomfort would be brief.

 

It was for the greater good.  In her frenzied thoughts and fears, she had to believe that somewhere.  _You are cursed,_ they had told her, eyes drawn to her raven black hair.  When she was younger, her mother disguised it with juices—roe—anything that would make it look red and not that awful nothing color.  It took time after her mother’s death for them to encroach, peel back the last layers of her influence, and send her accursed daughter to the old temple where she would die alone like the others.  _It’s for the best,_ they told her without looking at her eyes.

 

She said she needed time.  She said it wasn’t enough.  But…

 

_It’s you or him._

 

A rock skittering somewhere far off in the darkness made her look up with a shuddering gasp, tear streaks shimmering in the guttering torchlight.  She hadn’t meant to look—it would be easier if she didn’t see.  But now that she had, she couldn’t look away.

 

Not that there was much to see.  The torches only illuminated so much, including the rune-scarred stone door that looked heart-breakingly solid.  Much of the room was lost to shadows in a huge blanket of darkness that her eyes couldn’t seem to get used to—enough to make much out, anyway.  She kept them peeled for movement regardless, feeling intensely the dread of being watched.  With her heart pounding in her ears alongside the monotonous crackle of the flames, it seemed to take a small eternity before—

 

_There!_

 

Light danced in a brief flicker along something ridged, like water, and bounced back at her in a sideways oval.  It was so quick and unfamiliar that she didn’t believe she saw it at first, and wasn’t sure what to make of it once she convinced herself she had.  It moved, so it couldn’t have been some kind of gemstone…was it a creature?  The light _had_ kind of looked like the reflection of a cat’s eye in the dark, but it scared her to think just what might be sharing the darkness with her.  Maybe a great cat of some sort.  Or a jackal.  Whatever it was, she hoped it didn’t draw this out.  Was it possible it hadn’t noticed her after all?  Probably not, but she was still going to hold just as still as she possibly could until it went away or…or ate her, she guessed, since there wasn’t much she could do to stop it.  Thinking like that was no good either; now she was certain her heartbeat was loud enough to be audible.

 

Deep in the darkness, she saw two red spots glow brightly and cloud with smoke as a rustling noise like a deep sigh echoed around the room.

 

_Dragondragondragondragondragondragondragon—!_

 

Chains jangled in rhythm with her nerves, all composure shattering into boundless fear and survival instinct in spite of the situation.  She screamed pointlessly for help and wrenched at the manacles with all her strength, a bird beating its wings desperately against its cage and filled with a tortured kind of hope.  For a few seconds, she was really sure she might break free of the old stone.

 

A shockwave rocketed forth from the dark and all her weight fell onto the chains with a strangled whimper.  The pain of nearly having a shoulder or two dislocated was distracting, and she was so concerned with scrambling back to her feet at first that she couldn’t even put together in her head what had just happened.  By the time she did—and could deal with the reality—he was in front of her.

 

At least, she assumed it was a he, in an automatic way.  She really didn’t have the time or resources to be concerned, but the narrowed, gleaming jade eyes that met hers were too self-aware to belong to an “it.”  Larger than life black scales glittered in waves of heat, gradually fading into red spikes at the crest of his head and all down his spine, and that forbidden color shifted into a silvery underbelly that looked reddish in the firelight.  In short, he was a little too striking and alien not to notice—but probably the last features she spotted were the twin violet spires under his eyes.  There was something inexplicably ominous about that location for them.

 

Being faced with the monster from the darkness did nothing to assuage the girl’s panic, but the sight of him froze her again.  “Dragon eyes are like the fire,” she remembered someone saying when she was little.  “They only see the dance of things; the movement.”  If that were really the case, she imagined the rate of escape would be a lot higher for dragon encounters—but it was still comforting to squeeze her eyes shut and hold perfectly still, braced for the inferno, and think maybe the dragon saw her vanish straight into the wall like a mirage.

 

Not so comforting to imagine he could see the tear rolling down her cheek.

 

Torches still flickered behind her eyelids, faraway heat that crackled louder with each passing moment, so it surprised her into a flinch when she felt a shock of cold.  Her hair had whipped up out of her face with the dragon’s sniff, but now it flattened to her forehead again as she coughed through the cloud of smoke he snorted after.  When she coaxed her eyes open, oh so slowly—and as usual it was impossible not to stare once she succeeded—it was to meet the bright stare of one huge jade eye.  The dragon had turned his head completely sideways to take her in, apparently content and bold enough with her obvious capture not to be in the least bit skittish.

 

She couldn’t figure out yet if that was good or bad.

 

At least he hadn’t killed her yet, that was something.  The temptation to kick him in the eye while she had the chance was huge, that could cripple him for later, but as long as she couldn’t run it would be unthinkably stupid.  Besides, she was shaking so badly that she wasn’t sure if she could lift her leg that high and not spear herself in the foot on the purple spike (probably there to protect him from that very act).  The ceremonial black boots weren’t built for that.

 

But the longer they sat there, unblinking, the more convinced she became that this dragon intended to kill her in a few moments.  She wasn’t going to win this standoff, that much was certain, and maybe if she got insanely lucky she’d be able to pull free of the manacles in the instant the dragon reeled back in pain.  Maybe if she got even insanely _luckier_ he wouldn’t be able to roast her properly the first try and would melt the chains instead.  What it boiled down to was, very soon she was just going to have to take this chance.

 

Something very odd happened.

 

The eye she’d been staring at changed.  For just a moment, the catlike slit of the pupil grew small and round, and the jade iris shrank around it to expose a white sclera.  The dragon blinked once, making a deep noise like a slowed down chirp, and the eye returned to normal.

 

Tears and terror both made her lips tremble and ruined her speech irreparably.  “I-I—w-wh-hat—?”

 

And just like that he was pulling back to a dizzying height and lifting a claw.  She cringed inward reflexively, regretting bitterly that she missed her chance, this was it—

 

Impact high above her head, and the old chain fell through her restraints with a thin, reedy whine to coil at her feet like a rusted snake.

 

The manacles practically fell off by themselves—without the chains to hold them closed, they opened on hinges the moment she moved and hit the stone with heavy clanks—and she had to step quickly to the side to keep one from smashing into her toes.  Still shaking uncontrollably, she rubbed her wrists without feeling them.  All thought of escape flew from her mind the moment the dragon’s head moved in towards hers.  “N-no get back—get back get back get b—!”  Knocking knees gave way and dumped her straight on the floor, where she scrambled straight back into a corner and held up an arm to protect herself.  “Stay _away_!”

 

The alien sound he made seemed annoyed.

 

Terrified blue eyes stared at him from between sweat-sticky black bangs, and the girl tried in vain to think through her labored breathing.  Obviously he’d freed her, sure, but she couldn’t tell if _he_ could tell what he’d done.  For all their mystery and mythology, dragons were still dragons—they killed humans.  That was the only thing she’d ever learned about them.  She couldn’t say if the forbidden color had an effect on him; it definitely didn’t endear him to her any, but very little was actually known about dragons because so few people escaped the encounters with them.  The curse might not affect them as it did humans.

 

Whatever he’d done, for whatever reason, she didn’t want to give him the chance to regret it.  The girl got to her feet again, feeling her way uncertainly up the wall and still pressing her slight form into the corner, and made a timid bid for life.  “Please…I don’t…I don’t know w-what you…”

 

The dragon seemed content with watching her, head cocked and eyes unblinking like an owl or snake.  Obviously he wouldn’t know what to make of whatever she was saying and she felt stupid for trying, but maybe the sentiment would come across even if the meaning didn’t.  Who was she _kidding_ —she was talking to a completely unpredictable, powerful wild animal that could breathe fire, and hoping it would understand just enough not to overreact and kill her.  And that was _after_ she assumed he wouldn’t just kill her on a whim.  Even people did that.

 

Before the absolute hopelessness of her situation could close in on her and crush her again, the dragon moved and she seized up.  Eyes scrunched, shoulders tucked up under her ears, and ready to be burnt alive again, she felt him wedge his snout between her back and the wall and communicate with a very pointed jab between her shoulder blades.

 

_Forward march._

 

The tension didn’t exactly let up, but she let out a breath in relief when she was still alive for another second, another ten seconds, another minute…  “We’re…going somewhere?”

 

Probably fed up now with her dilly-dallying around, the dragon made another vast sound—air raking through alien lungs—and appeared to jerk its head at the darkness in front of them in a very human _C’mon_ gesture.  She had to do a double-take and wonder if she saw it wrong, and perhaps she did.  It was an odd thing to see from a dragon, anyway, so she could have been mistaking an irritated glance forward for something more meaningful.  Regardless, it was obvious from the way he didn’t indicate anything further once she fell in that this was the idea.

 

So it was kind of unfortunate that it was so dark.  Her mind was already reeling with the possibilities—where _were_ they headed?  Was he just saving her for a later meal?  Could she even be considered an appetizer for a dragon this big?  Maybe she could get away in the darkness, or could he see even _better_ then—and having to concentrate on seeing her way in the dark on top of that was just unfair.  She stumbled, nearly fell, and came very close once to putting her hand right on the dragon’s scaled flank for guidance before she stopped to think about what a crazy thing she was about to do.  Eventually it got so bad that she couldn’t see the ground in front of her, or the hand in front of her face, and she came to a dead stop.  The scrape of claws and shift of scales on stone told her the dragon was still moving, and at a surprisingly leisurely pace, but it was kind of close-quartered in here for something his size.

 

Silence.

 

She looked around helplessly at the blackness, took an uncertain step and felt ahead of her for a wall, and nearly tripped over a pebble in the path.  At this point she couldn’t even be certain what _direction_ she was supposed to head in.

 

Her own voice surprised her in a terrified yelp as something surprisingly soft and curved scooped her up from behind, forcing her forward a few feet and back onto unsteady legs.  In front of her, the dragon’s jade eyes flashed impatiently, illuminated by the brief jet of flames from his snout.  Glancing back, she could see the dim red shape of his wing fold back into place before the darkness fell again.

 

“I can’t see like you do!”  She probably didn’t sound annoyed, only desperate.  It was all the more terrifying in the dark, and as little as he understood her she didn’t want the dragon to decide she was wasting too much time.  At least then he might just leave her in the dark like this, but now she wasn’t sure which outcome was worse.

 

Either he did understand or he must have figured it out by her fumbling around in the dark, because she heard him shift and then something thin and scaled and surprisingly flexible slipped into her hands.  He started to tug it out of reach, so she was forced into motion—holding onto his tail like a child clinging to her father’s coattails.

 

It was scary not knowing where to put her feet, and whether or not she was going to trip and smash her nose on something in the next moment, but the ground they covered was mostly flat—if at an incline from time to time.  It took her and the ache in her calves a while to realize that they were slowly making their way up, which surprised her.  The old temple was already up in the mountains, so should they go much higher than that the air would get thin and she would have to worry about more than the dragon again.  At least the customary black cloak was warm enough up here, even if the way its trappings clinked reminded her constantly of the chains from before.

 

At some point, total darkness gave way to a wan, colorless light.  She only realized it was starlight once their cavern unfurled into the mountainside and the night opened up before them.  It caught her in the chest and left her breathless—she hadn’t expected to ever see the night again, or another day.

 

Or another sunset.

 

Black-gloved fingers cupped her mouth in a sudden bittersweet joy.  She got lost in staring at the stars, each one another moment she almost missed having forever, and completely forgot the dragon at her side until movement caught her eye.  “Oh—right, I know, I’m com…”

 

That’s when she noticed the sheer edge of the cliff where the cavern dropped off.

 

All too soon, terrible dread was back.  “How do we keep going…?”

 

She almost didn’t want to look as the dragon stretched out his red-black wings, clearly testing the wind’s force and direction.  They looked huge, and he was a sinewy thing, but she was suddenly completely uncertain that they were really big enough to carry his full weight.  And hers, for that matter.  What if she was just heavy enough to throw the whole thing off?  Would he leave her behind then?

 

After a fair amount of hesitation, during which they both sized one another up, she reached feebly for his shoulder.  “Should I get up on your—”

 

He twitched back sharply with a reproachful look.

 

“Okay!  Okay, I’m sorry.  You make the rules,” she said, instantly putting both hands behind her back like she wanted him to forget they existed.

 

But he seemed to be adjusting slowly to her tendency to freak out whenever he did something unexpected, and so the open claw and invitingly spread talons he turned her way were slowly and deliberately offered.

 

She looked straight into those and saw a thousand different deaths.

 

The immediate response from her reflexes and sentiment alike was a quick, level shaking of her head, but she couldn’t be sure if the dragon understood what that meant.  Either way he didn’t take it well, since he drew back suddenly like a snake about to strike and she flinched with her arms up to protect her head—and felt that claw curl tight around her waist.  “Wait—no!”

 

But there wasn’t time to object before she felt the weight of the sky on them, his wings forcing them up against the natural drag, and the cavern fell away under them as they pitched for the river and trees below.  Her first thought was that she was absolutely right, she was too heavy for him to carry them both and now they were going to die like this, of all the ways she possibly could have died today—but then they leveled out of the dive and coasted.

 

The night air hit her face in a shock of life, parting her hair in a new way every time she turned her head.  Below her, the ground drifted by lazily like it was barely moving at all—the view was just too expansive to pinpoint anymore where she would be if she landed.  Besides the talons dangerously close to her organs, it was exactly as if she were flying all on her own, and if she had any faith in the dragon’s hold on her she could have let go of her own death grip to spread her arms and legs out and pretend.

 

_Roxas would love this._

 

That thought hurt her so much now.

 

The village—her people, none of them could ever know she survived.  Not that there was any guarantee she _would_ survive much longer than this; it was a constant stream of luck that kept her going this long in the first place.  But the point was, any chance that she could be discovered was one she couldn’t take.

 

She could never see him again.

 

Turbulence jostled her out of her thoughts with a surprised cry, but the dragon’s grip on her never faltered.  It still scared her enough to start looking for their destination.  Flying with a dragon might be a once in a lifetime chance, but that didn’t make it everyone’s once in a lifetime dream.  She didn’t have far to look, either—a honey-colored opening in another mountainside caught her eye as the dragon adjusted their trajectory that way, and as they moved in for a landing she braced herself.  It surprised her when he twisted her in towards his silvered-over chest, and she noticed in the confusion of the moment that it didn’t glimmer quite as brightly as the black scales and still looked reddish.

 

The shuddering trauma of impact made her wonder if he could hurt himself that way, only landing on three legs—well why would she be worried, though?—but the moment they came to a stop and he let her down, she stopped wondering.  Obviously he had made this kind of trip before.  Many times.

 

On her feet, she staggered into the wall and gaped at the fabulous treasures spilling out from every corner of the cave.  There were mountains of gold coins, the odd silver crown or gold scepter, and of course, gemstones of every size and shape and color stabbing up from the sinfully indulgent hoard.  At the center was a gigantic red stone with a flickering glow, like a fire that never quite went out, that managed to light up the entire cave.  It was all she could do to fumble with a single gold coin that eluded her shaking fingers.  It went rolling under a broken chest that was still dripping with jewels, but mostly emptied and forgotten about.

 

The dragon passed her at a pace that, if he were human, might have looked more like strutting.  But as always it was hard to say.  He moved in a strange way for something so huge; his weight still made impact, but there was something catlike to his stride that didn’t quite let him lumber.  Proud of his domain as he may or may not have been, he didn’t seem concerned for a second with the fabulousness of his treasures and set about rearranging—carelessly rolling rubies and diamonds out of his way with his head and kicking emeralds and studded armor aside.  After what looked like some inward debating, he did some digging around and looped string after string of pearls together with some very tricky maneuvering to keep from slicing them all apart with his teeth or talons.

 

While he worked on that, the girl finally stepped the full way inside.  No matter where she looked there was something else to catch her eye, all so loud and gold and rich, and despite being certain it was just another reason the dragon might kill her she was distracted by daydreams of running back home with her arms full of gold coins.  Maybe if she got this much, they would forget about the curse.  Maybe if they saw what a blessing it was, really, that she’d stumbled into this dragon hoard, they would see there’s no good _reason_ to kill her just like her mother always said…what was that dragon up to, anyway?

 

Curious, she wandered back over and found the collection of pearls.  Easily more than she’d ever seen in her life, since she’d only seen about two that her mother wore on special occasions, but what were they for?  “What are you doing with those?” she asked, despite the guaranteed lack of a response.

 

It sounded to her like the dragon made some soft, sarcastic noise, but she couldn’t tell over the clatter of pearls.  He gave the pile a critical look, and when he backed away from her he bowed his head in a distinctively deferential way.  “You’re…are you giving this to me?” she asked in a panic, not wanting to then go and upset him by refusing.

 

But if he cared he made no show of it, since he only headed to an arbitrary pile of coins and curled into a glittering oval of red and black.  As he relaxed with a smoky snort, the fiery stone at the center of the cave dimmed to a dull glow.

 

In near darkness again, she knew it made no sense to run now.  And even if this lair didn’t end in a sheer cliff outside, there wasn’t anywhere to run _to_ anymore.  But that still didn’t mean giving up.  She’d come this far, luckily enough.  Uncertain as she was curling up in a pile of treasures, surrounded by enough riches to buy her entire government twice and a single creature that could decimate the army that came for them, there had to be a hole in his defenses somewhere.  If he wasn’t going to eat her, that meant she had time to find it.

 

The rescued sacrifice that she was wouldn’t notice until the next morning that the bed of pearls had been assembled in the most defensible niche of the cavern—as if to protect the most precious treasure of all.

**Author's Note:**

> Ideally this will not take forever to update, but it's been awhile since I've written in chapters. This is based firmly on concepts like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, so if you're familiar with them you already know it's going to be Sad As All Hell. Thanks for reading!
> 
> EDIT: Sorry but I lost the rest of this when my harddrive failed, and don't plan to rewrite or continue it. On the bright side though I've essentially reworked the original idea into something else, which I'll post up later when I'm sure I'm happy with it.


End file.
